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The Downton Abbey star - known for playing handsome heir Matthew Crawley in the Emmy Award-winning TV drama - has landed a part in Bill Condon's untitled upcoming biopic about controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Benedict Cumberbatch has already been cast as disgraced journalist Assange, and Variety is now reporting Dan will play a hacker close to Daniel Domscheit-Berg, one of the company's most prominent spokesmen.

Vampire romantic comedy

It was recently announced Inglourious Basterds actor Daniel Bruhl would star as Domscheit-Berg after James McAvoy was forced to drop out due to his prior commitments to X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Swedish starlet Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina) rounds out the cast.

British-born Dan moved to New York this summer to pursue a Hollywood career after landing a part in Broadway play The Heiress, and is not expected to appear in the fourth series of Downton Abbey.

He is also set to feature in upcoming vampire romantic comedy Vamps alongside Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter.

The WikiLeaks film - speculatively titled The Man Who Sold the World - will chronicle the ups and downs of Assange, who caused embarrassment to world governments by leaking diplomatic cables around the world after launching the website in 2006.

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